


Lost in translation

by itsgoodtobealunatic (DragonGirl11)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Language Barrier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonGirl11/pseuds/itsgoodtobealunatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stranded in Pete's world without the TARDIS - and more importantly, the translation circuit - Rose and Tentoo learn to speak each other's languages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in translation

The TARDIS dematerialized for the last time, leaving Rose and the metacrisis Doctor with nothing but each other and a square imprint in the sand of Bad Wolf Bay. “ _He’s gone,_ ” Rose whispered, staring at the place where the time ship had been.

The Doctor squeezed her hand. “You've still got me,” he said.

She frowned up at him. “ _What?_ ”

He furrowed his brows and repeated, “You've still got me.”

“ _Doctor, you’re not speaking English,_ ” said Rose.

The Doctor released her hand and turned away, grinding the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Of course! I've still got the telepathic link to the TARDIS, but without the translation matrix, you can't understand a word I'm saying.”

Rose’s eyes grew wide as she figured it out. “ _It’s the TARDIS translation matrix, isn’t it? Like at Christmas. You’ve been speaking..._ ” She gestured up and down at him. “ _...whatever that is this whole time and she’s been translating. Without it, we can't understand each other._ ”

The Doctor swiftly turned to her and shook his head. “I can understand you, Rose,” he said. “But a fat lot of good it'll do telling you.” He rolled his eyes.

“ _Can you understand me, Doctor?_ ” she said, very slowly and with exaggerated gestures. The Doctor nodded his head frantically. “ _I'm gonna have to teach you English,_ ” she said with a grin, her tongue poking out between her teeth. She turned towards Jackie, who was waiting patiently a few meters away, and offered the Doctor her hand.

He took it with a smile. “Rose Tyler, I think you'll find that I'm an excellent pupil,” he said as they walked across the sand.

***

Pete drove the black jeep over the bumpy Norwegian road. “ _So I suppose he’ll be staying with you then, Rose? I’m sure we can find him a job at Torchwood,_ ” he said over his shoulder.

“ **He** is right here,” the Doctor moaned, leaning his head back. His arm was stretched out, holding Rose’s hand over the middle seat.

Rose brushed her thumb across his. “ _It’s really up to him,_ ” she said, looking at the Doctor instead of Pete.

“ _Well, he’s not going to be much help if he can’t even speak English. How do you expect him to get a flat of his own, talking in gibberish?_ ” asked Jackie.

The Doctor sat straight up. “It’s not gibberish, thank you very much, Jackie! Gallifreyan is a beautiful and complex language,” he protested. Rose squeezed his hand gently and he slumped back down. “But it may as well be, for all you can understand.”

“ _Do you want to stay with me, Doctor?_ ” Rose asked him. He nodded enthusiastically. She smiled at him as Jackie turned the conversation to something about who’s snogging whom at the office. The Doctor tuned her out and returned Rose’s smile with a goofy grin.

***

“ _Apple,_ ” said Rose, pointing to the picture in one of Tony’s board books.

The Doctor tried his best to hear the English words over the TARDIS’s psychic translation. Slowly, he tried to repeat her sound. It came out like a gross amalgamation of the Gallifreyan word and the English one.

“ _Aaaaah-pull,_ ” Rose repeated. She was growing frustrated now, jabbing her finger at the picture. They’d been doing this for half an hour now, and they were getting nowhere.

“Apple!” The Doctor roared in Gallifreyan, throwing up his hands. He looked away and pulled on his hair. It was demeaning, this, looking at ABC books handed down from a five-year-old, as if he wasn’t clever enough to learn a simple human language. His cleverness wasn’t the problem. He still had that marvellous Time Lord brain, after all. The problem was his bond with the TARDIS, so strong it crossed two entire universes, and the translation circuit that he couldn’t turn off from here even if he wanted to.

Rose closed the book and sighed. “ _Let’s try something simpler,_ ” she said. Simpler? **Simpler?** The Doctor was about to spew his thoughts out loud, whether she’d understand or not, when she pointed to herself. “ _Rose,_ ” she said.

The Doctor’s jaw fell open in awe and surprise, before he grinned and said one word he definitely knew in English. “Rose.” Or, well, it came out in Gallifreyan anyway.

Rose cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. “Rose?” she said, and - oh. The TARDIS didn’t translate that one, which meant she must have repeated after him. “ _Doctor?_ ” She put a hand on his chest, over his single heart.

His grin spread until it threatened to crack his face in half. “Doctor,” he said, putting his hand over hers.

She smiled with genuine joy. “Doctor,” she said. He had heard her say his name countless times, but always with the filter of the translator between them. This was new, it was exciting, and it was brilliant. He shuddered. She must have felt it because she raised her eyebrows and grinned, catching her tongue in her teeth. “Doctor,” she repeated deliberately.

He grabbed her in a hug. “Rose,” he said, like it was the most important word in the multiverse - which, to him, it was.

“Rose,” she said softly into his shoulder. “Rose _and_ Doctor.”

Suddenly, it clicked. He could hear the subtle difference in her voice when she was being translated and when she wasn’t. He pulled back, grabbed her face, and planted a firm but swift kiss on her lips. “Oh Rose Tyler, you’re brilliant!” She blinked as he pulled away again and reached for the book. He opened it up and pointed excitedly at the picture of the apple.

“ _Apple?_ ” she laughed.

“ _Apple!_ ” he shouted - in English. He waved and pointed to the next picture in the book. She said the word and he repeated it, whooping with laughter. They got through the book in a matter of minutes and were soon running around the Tyler mansion, picking up random objects and saying the word in English and in Gallifreyan.

They found themselves in the kitchen, talking about tea. He was starting to pick up sentences, as he could now hear quite distinctly what she said and the TARDIS’s Gallifreyan translation at the same time. With his big Time Lord brain it was easy enough to put two and two together.

Jackie walked in just as the Doctor told Rose how to say “tea” in Gallifreyan. “ _Aren’t you supposed to be teaching him, not the other way ‘round?_ ” 

Hm. He still only heard the translation when Jackie spoke. He’d have to work on that. Still, he was celebrating. The Doctor turned to Jackie, held up the kettle with a huge grin on his face, and said, “ _Would you like some tea?_ ”


End file.
